Cisco’s Internet of Things chief steps down seven months into job

Guido Jouret leaving to “pursue a new opportunity”, according to Cisco.

Cisco’s Internet of Things head Guido Jouret has left his post after just seven months, the company has confirmed.

The firm confirmed reports this week that Jouret has left his job as IoT general manager to "pursue a new opportunity", and will be replaced by senior VP Rob Soderbery, who currently oversees enterprise networking and IoT groups.

Jouret started his career at Cisco in 1994, according to his LinkedIn profile.

At first a director in France, he became the CTO of emerging technologies before being handpicked to head up Cisco’s IoT operations in October 2013 – Cisco believes the ‘Internet of Everything’ could be worth up to $14.4 trillion as a market.

Blogger Brad Reese initially broke the news, with Cisco later confirming it in a statement.

It read: "Cisco can confirm that Guido Jouret, previously VP/General Manager of Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) business unit, is leaving Cisco to pursue a new opportunity. Cisco Senior Vice President Rob Soderbery, who oversees Cisco’s enterprise networking and IoT groups, will assume direct leadership of the group."

CBR has contacted Jouret over the news, but so far has received no response.

We interviewed him back in February, when he predicted that apps will replace all dedicated devices in three years’ time.

He also spoke about the uses of fog computing, used in Cisco’s IOx platform to equip Cisco devices including routers and IP cameras with applications to store and process data closer to where they are connected.

He claimed this replaces the requirement to push that data back over the network and into a data centre.

"These are examples of the kinds of logic that we believe will happen at the network edge," Jouret said at the time.

"It’s really saying instead of back in the data centre or home office, it’s right on the lorry or close to your home with a router that some of the decisions will need to be made. And the more decisions made there, the more that these applications become intelligent."

His departure comes at an inauspicious time for tech firms, after the CEO of ERP giant Sage announced he would also be leaving the company no later than the end of March 2015 following four years at the helm.

SAP’s tech visionary, Vishal Sikka, quit with immediate effect earlier this week just a month before co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe is due to step down.

SAP’s cloud sales chief Shawn Price is also set to leave the German giant too, after replacing predecessor Bob Calderoni in January.